My son hasn't been feeling well for a couple of days, and may have swine flu. He had a test which will give results within a week (seems a bit pointless frankly, since he'll be over it by then) and me and Mrs. Retro will now be on Tamiflu.

He's not to come in contact with others for three days, and this is what's saddening him at the moment because he was really looking forward to seeing my parents tomorrow.

When I was quite young I got scarlet fever, which caused our home to be quarantined. It annoyed my sibs, given that it was over Easter vaction and they could not go out. Seems like another lifetime ago.

As for the piggy flu, it is an interesting wake up call to the possibility of a serious pandemic. Fortunately it is not too serious (yet). Anyway, good luck with it.

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723

>> Do you see a man wise[enlightened/ariya]in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<<-- Proverbs 26:12

Something I forgot to mention... the quarantine actually only applies to my son. Swine Flu is too far gone here in Victoria for family members to have to stay at home too if they're not showing symptoms. Lucky that, because I took 3 days off work last week with a bad viral headache and lethargy... which of course leads me to wonder if I had (or have) it?

Then again, it could all just be a regular virus, cold or flu my son has - it is Winter here after all. However, we do know that a youngster who uses the community centre where his kindergarten is had swine flu, so it could well be.

I was wondering who between us would have the first quarantined household as a result of the 'hog-wog'!We all wish your young son a quick recovery.Metta

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion … ...He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

A pandemic doesn't mean it's critically serious. It just means the condition is now uncontainable.

The one way to stop the spread of colds, sniffles and the suchlike is to always cover the nose/mouth when coughing/sneezing - and to always wash the hands with anti-bacterial soap afterwards. These things really are spread more by touch than by airborne transmission, because whilst 9 out of 10 people cover up when coughing or sneezing - it's general politeness (I know, I know, becoming more & more of a phenomenon as we speak.... ) - an awful lot of people still don't wash their hands afterwards.....